A new heart surgery infection risk has been linked with a device often used during these surgeries known as a cardiac heater-cooler system. A growing number of patients are reporting being affected by serious infections after heart surgery with the use of a cardiac heater-cooler system.

While there is always a certain amount of heart surgery infection risk, that risk increases with the use of a contaminated cardiac heater-cooler system, reports indicate. Certain of these devices may have been contaminated prior to use during surgery, meaning that they can introduce contaminants to the body while it is most vulnerable. Patients can go into heart surgery without knowing about the heart surgery infection risk linked with cardiac heater-cooler devices.

Heart Surgery Infection Risk

The major infection that has been connected with contaminated cardiac heater-cooler devices is known as Mycobacterium chimaera, a severe and life-threatening condition. Reports of M. chimaera as a major heart surgery infection risk have come in from multiple countries since 2013.

LivaNova, a manufacturer of heater-cooler devices, found after conducting tests in August 2014 that the factory where their cardiac heater-coolers were made had been contaminated with M. chimaera. LivaNova took steps to fix the problem, and reported adding additional cleaning and disinfection procedures to this line of products the very next month, finding that later samples taken did not show evidence of M. chimaera.

But this could not undo the damage that had already been done. There are still those who have already undergone heart surgery that may still be exposed to heart surgery infection risk.

At this point, healthcare workers across the U.S. and Europe were warned about the potential for these devices to function as heart surgery infection causes.

Unfortunately, M. chimaera infections are difficult to detect. In many cases, patients may not even develop symptoms of the infection for months or even years after the initial exposure. And, if they are not even aware of this heart surgery infection risk, they may not ever realized the connection back to the infection’s root cause.

In order to protect patients from infection, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said that it will continue to evaluate the heart surgery infection risk factors for contaminated heater-cooler devices, and is working with science and health experts to minimize the exposure facing patients.

Filing a Heart Surgery Infection Risk Lawsuit

More and more patients are filing lawsuits over infections caused by contaminated devices used during surgery. If you or someone you love has suffered from an infection after undergoing heart surgery with the use of a cardiac heater-cooler device, you may be able to file a lawsuit or join a class action heart surgery infection risk lawsuit.

While filing a heart surgery infection risk lawsuit cannot take away the physical and emotional effects of such a serious infection or bring a loved one back to life, it can help to alleviate the financial burden caused by medical expenses and lost wages.